Newly released surveillance footage shows Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old co-owner of the Marion County Record, responding to a police raid on her home the day before she died.
The video footage shows Meyer yelling at Marion County police officers, who carried out a raid on her home and newspaper office with search warrants.
“Don’t you touch any of that stuff,” Meyer, dressed in a robe and slippers and gripping a walker, can be heard shouting at the beginning of the video clip. After one of the officers began addressing the newspaper co-owner as “ma’am,” Meyer shouted, “This is my house!”
As officers continued to seize any electronic devices in the house, Meyer shouted, “I don’t want you in my house!”
According to Fox News, Joan Meyer’s son, Eric Meyer, who is the publisher of the Marion County Record, publicly released the footage Tuesday after a state official claimed the reason behind the police raid did not constitute a crime.
Following the death of his mother just one day after law enforcement raided the newspaper and his mother’s house, Eric Meyer blamed his mother’s death on the stress inflicted by the police raid.
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“It’s everything you’ve heard of a third-world. It really is like we’re living in Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany,” Meyer said. “How dare they take the last day of her life and make her filled with fear and anger.”
In the surveillance video, a police officer can be seen asking Joan Meyer how many computers could be found in her house. In response, Meyer pushed past the officer with her walker, boldly stating, “I’m not gonna tell you. Get out of my way.”
The recent raid on the Marion County Record prompted backlash due to First Amendment concerns. Last week, Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey withdrew the search warrants pertaining to the police investigation, ordering Marion Police to return all of the items that were seized at the newspaper facility and the Meyer residence. The Marion County attorney reportedly found no legal basis for the case.
“It is not a crime in America to be a reporter,” Bernie Rhodes, an attorney for Meyers and the Marion County Record, told Fox News.
